Dart without rebound

ABSTRACT

A dart (10) of a dart game provides a freely rotatable and reciprocating biased point (11) with a tip (12) that, when the tip (12) hits a wire mesh (W) on a normal dart board or target (T), this causes the point (11) to reciprocatingly collapse or migrate into the dart barrel (18) but due to the forward momentum of the flight of the dart (10) the forward momentum urges the tip (12) off of the wire (W) and causes penetration of the tip (12) into target (T) thereby eliminating, or reducing substantially, incidents of direct hit of the dart tip (12) on the wire (W) whereby the dart (10) would bounce off the dart board or target (T) onto the ground with no points being awarded for the shot. The free rotation of the point allowed, when that point is penetratingly resting in a target, the body of that dart rotates out of the path of travel of an oncoming dart, should the oncoming dart hit the flight or even possibly the barrel of the penetrated dart. The biasing point is always held in its extended or &#34;set&#34; position and the need to reset the point is not necessary.

This invention relates to a playing dart in particular, one that has,relative to the dart body or barrel, a biased retractable and freelyrotatable point.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

The skill game of darts is played throughout the world and iscompetitive when not played as a leisure sport or game. The darts arepropelled by the hand toward a disc-like target having a centre bull'seye and circumferential rings, some of which are subdivided intopie-shaped regions, others are chordal. Each of these regions has itsown denomination for scoring and each boundary between each region isseparated, normally by a shaped round wire, which is organized as aframe work or lattice that overlays the boundaries between eachdifferent denominated region to partition the target into physical areasthat have unique denominated values. If a dart is thrown toward theboundary of two different denominated regions and it hits the wire whichis laid over and runs along the boundary. In many instances the dartbounces off the boundary wire and onto the floor since the point hitsthe wire head-on. In some instances, where the momentum of the dart issuch, or the point strikes the wire other than "head-on" thus near itsedge, the point is deflected into the adjacent region, with the pointpenetrating the region and the dart sticking so as to be awarded pointsaccording to the denomination of the region penetrated.

According to the prior art, there is disclosed by one REID in U.S. Pat.No. 5,009,433 issued 22 Apr., 1991 for a "DART FOR AIMING AT AGAMEBOARD". A dart which has a movable point movable along a line with ahorizontal longitudinal axis of the body portion of the dart andco-incident with the line with the vertical axis of the dart so that thepoint can stick to the board and avoid obstructions on the board. Suchdart has, within a cylindrical bore of the body portion, either acircumferential clasping means which urges against the outside diameterof the dart point, along the margin of the dart point downstream from anapproximate furrel end of the dart or alternatively, a plurality orcollection of metal balls or shot which move, after impact of the dartpoint, into a bore downstream absorbing the impact of the dart pointwithin the body. This particular dart has the disadvantage in that thedart point is not automatically re-set to its most outwardly extendingposition after the dart is retrieved and pulled out of the dart board,because there is no biasing means to urge the dart point to its outwardextent.

THE INVENTION

It is an object of the invention to provide the dart with such momentum,that if the point hits the wire head-on, the point will telescope intothe barrel of the dart allowing the body of the dart to carry forward byits momentum. The point thus being relieved slightly of its initialimpact pressure on the wire but the point tends to glide around the wireand to penetrate into an adjacent scoring region because of thesustained pressure of the dart barrel moving toward the target andholding the point against the wire while biasing the spring inside thebarrel. This action encourages the dart point to slide off the wire andto penetrate a target region adjacent thereto rather than for the dartto bounce off the wire onto the floor without penetrating the target.

It is also an object of the invention to provide a rotatable pointrelative to the body or barrel of the dart so that when that dartpenetratingly rests in its dart target, and an oncoming dart strikes theflight of the dart that is penetrated, the body, barrel and flight ofthe penetrated dart is free to rotate relative to the point so as tomove out of the path of the oncoming dart resulting in a better successrate for the oncoming dart in penetrating a target.

It is an additional object of the invention to provide a sub-assemblyand a two-tiered collar that allows the barrel to freely rotate aroundits extending point such that any subsequent dart that makes contactwith the dart already in the board, the rotating motion of that dartwill allow subsequent flying darts to continue to the desired target by"moving out of the way".

It is a further object of the invention to provide a biasing point sothat the point always returns to its original extended position afterretraction, and hence, the need to "set" the point is not required.

It is a further object of the invention to provide within the barrel orbody of the dart, a replaceable casing, which may be removed from thebody of the dart and replaced, in seconds, the said casing containingthe biasing means which urges the point into its "set" position.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention therefore contemplates a game dart comprising an elongatedbarrel having a point coupled thereto, and protruding from the barrel, ashaft, a flight adapted to engage said shaft including means forretaining the same thereon, a barrel housing a sub-assembly, saidsub-assembly including a housing having a longitudinal bore, andcharacterized by the biasing means disposed within the barrel urgingagainst the point whereby the point, on impact as a result of the flyingof the dart toward the target provides a sustained momentum of the tipof the point, for a pre-determined period of time, against the wire sothat the tip migrates off of the wire to penetrate into the target.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described by way of example and reference tothe accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an assembly view of the dart according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section through the body of the dart;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are explanatory elevational views of the dart on impact onthe wire and its subsequent continuing penetration into an adjacentdenominated score region of the target;

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, the dart is generally indicated as (10) andincludes a cylindrical retractable point (11) with pointed tip (12) atone end, and near its opposite end, a furrel (13) mounted near theopposite end (14) of the point (11). A coil spring (15) has one of itsends fitting over the proximate end (14) of the point (11) and urgesagainst the furrel (13). The whole spring (15) with proximate end (14)and furrel (13) of the point (11) fit into a cylindrical casing (16)having its upper end closed and its lower end open allowing the point(11) to protrude therethrough. The same is a sub-assembly and as such,the casing (16) defining a casing or sub-assembly bore fits into a bore(16') defined by body or barrel (18) of the dart (10). At the oppositeend of the barrel (18), there is a threaded aperture (19) into whichthreads shaft (20) having at its opposite end flight (21). The point(11) is constrained within the barrel (18) by a collar (25) which has acylindrical channel (26) therethrough through which the point (11)extends. The point (11) is adapted to reciprocatingly travel through thecollar (25) and to rotate relative to the collar (25) and the body orbarrel (18) so that when this dart is penetratingly fixed into a target,and an oncoming dart strikes the penetrated dart flight, the flight ofthe penetrated dart body and barrel are free to rotate relative to thetip of the penetrated dart and thereby move out of the road or pass theflight of the oncoming dart. The collar (25), preferably, has a threadedcylindrical protrusion which screws into corresponding threads (29) atthe downstream end of the barrel (18) and also into the downstream endof the casing (16) by engaging threads (30) formed on the inner surfaceof the downstream and of the casing (16). In that respect, the collar(25) has a stepped threaded portion (29,30) with an exterior outerprofile (28) resembling a truncated conic. Threads are preferred for thecollar (25), barrel and casing so that the spring (15) may be replacedwhen it becomes weak. The spring, which places a bias on the tip, forcesthe tip into full extension at all times, save on impact, as hereinafterwill be explained.

After assembly and with reference to FIG. 2, the same illustrates thearrow assembled.

When thrown toward a target (T), if the tip (12) should, and nowreferring to FIG. 3, hit a wire which overlays the boundary of twodifferent denominated scorable regions, the point (11) telescopes intothe barrel (18) causing the furrel (13) to push against the coiledspring (15), into the phantom position shown in FIG. 2. In the meantime,and referring to FIG. 3, the dart (10) progresses in the direction ofthe arrow with the barrel (18) moving into the phantom position of thatfigure to apply a constant pressure on the point (11) and the tip (12)on the wire (W), causing the tip (12) to migrate off the wire (W), asshown in phantom, and to penetrate the target region adjacent the wire.This action is assured because during the forward movement of the barrel(18), which occurs because of the dart (10) momentum during flight,there will be a small, yet unbalanced distribution of forces by thepoint (11) on the wire (W) which will cause the dart tip (12) to migrateoff the wire (W), as described.

FIG. 4 illustrates the momentum after impact and subsequent penetrationinto adjacent scoring region of the target (T) where the body of thedart (10) moves, in the direction of the arrow, as a result of thecontinuing biasing force of the coiled spring (15) on the closed end(17) of the casing (16), on the one hand, and on the furrel (13) of thepoint (11) on the other.

We claim:
 1. A game dart (10) comprising;(a) a barrel (18) defining aninternal bore (16') that communicates with one end of the barrel, thebarrel carrying at its opposite end, means for carrying a shaft (20) anda flight (21); (b) a point (11) with pointed tip (12) at one end andnear its opposite end (14) a furrel (13); (c) a removable sub-assembly(16) adapted to removingly fit into the internal bore (16'), thesub-assembly (16) defining a sub-assembly bore (16"); (d) a biasingmeans (15) located within the sub-assembly bore (16') biasing againstthe furrel (13); (e) a removable collar (25) defining an aperture (26)through which the point (11) is adapted to reciprocatingly travel saidcollar (25), sub-assembly (16) and body (18) having means by which thecollar can fittingly attach to both sub-assembly (16) and body (18)whereby completing an assembled dart, the point (11) of which is sizedto travel, in part, in a sliding fashion, within the sub-assembly (16)and aperture (26) characterized in that the biasing means (15) is acontinual biasing means constantly urged against the furrel (13) to urgethe point (11) into its fully extended position, but on impact of thepoint (11), as a result of the flying of the dart toward a target (T),carrying wires (W), the barrel (18) provides a substantial momentum ofthe dart (10) to the point (11), for a pre-determined time , against thewire (W) so that the tip (12) of the point (11) migrates off the wire(W) to penetrate into the target (T), and immediately thereafter, tore-set the point (11) to its most outwardly extended position afterimpact.
 2. The dart (10) as claimed in claim 1, characterized in thatthe collar (25) has means (29) adapted to fittingly engage into thebarrel (18) and cylindrical casing (16), and defines an aperture (26)therethrough, through which the point (11) extends.
 3. The dart (10) asclaimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the continual biasing means (15) ischaracterized by a coil spring (15).